Monrovia – The Chambers Justice of the Supreme Courtroom of Liberia, Her Honor Jamesetta Howard Wolokolie, has sharply rebuked the Business Courtroom for refusing to protect the established order in a high-stakes petroleum dispute between SRIMEX Oil & Gasoline Firm and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Firm (LPRC), ruling that the decrease court docket erred when it declined to make its preliminary injunction efficient pending arbitration.
By Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
In an in depth ruling through the October Time period A.D. 2025, Justice Wolokolie held that whereas the Business Courtroom correctly compelled arbitration underneath the events’ 20-year Petroleum Storage Settlement (PSA), it misapplied the regulation by vacating injunctive aid that was essential to guard the integrity of that arbitration.
Arbitration Ordered—However Safety Denied
The dispute stems from a September 3, 2025 presidential mandate issued by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, revising the petroleum pricing construction to generate income for the Nationwide Highway Fund, county highway tools, and social applications.
LPRC subsequently issued a round implementing new per-gallon prices and requiring importers and terminal operators to remit extra charges.
SRIMEX objected, arguing that LPRC had no authority to unilaterally alter or terminate the 2013 Petroleum Storage Settlement ratified by LPRC’s Board Decision No. BD/2013/012. The corporate contended that the pricing directive considerably altered the monetary construction of the PSA and amounted to expropriation of its property and contractual rights.
After SRIMEX petitioned the Business Courtroom to compel arbitration underneath Part 10 of the PSA, the court docket granted arbitration however refused to keep up a everlasting injunction to stop LPRC from proscribing entry to SRIMEX’s tank farm, seizing its petroleum merchandise, and blocking vessel berthing.
The Business Courtroom reasoned that issuing a everlasting injunction would exceed its jurisdiction as soon as arbitration was ordered.
Supreme Courtroom: Jurisdiction Over Arbitration Does Not Oust Energy to Shield It
Justice Wolokolie disagreed.
In her ruling, she clarified that jurisdiction over the deserves of a dispute topic to arbitration is distinct from a court docket’s authority to situation procedural safeguards to protect the effectiveness of arbitration.
“The facility to compel arbitration,” the Chambers Justice reasoned, “doesn’t extinguish the court docket’s authority to make sure that the arbitration course of is significant and never rendered worthless.”
Citing Article VI(b) of the Business Courtroom Act of 2010 and related provisions of Liberia’s Civil Process Legislation, she emphasised that courts retain discretion to grant injunctive aid the place continued actions by a celebration threaten irreparable hurt or may render eventual arbitration awards ineffectual.
Contract Rights vs. Government Coverage
On the coronary heart of the dispute is Article 25 of Liberia’s 1986 Structure, which ensures the duty of contracts and prohibits legal guidelines impairing contractual rights.
Whereas acknowledging that democratically elected governments should retain flexibility to implement coverage modifications, the Courtroom burdened that such actions should be balanced towards constitutional protections for present contracts.
The PSA between SRIMEX and LPRC runs via 2032 and comprises a binding arbitration clause requiring disputes to be resolved via confidential arbitration in Liberia.
Justice Wolokolie famous that if LPRC’s actions—blocking SRIMEX’s entry to its leased tank farm on the Freeport of Monrovia, seizing saved petroleum, and denying vessel discharge—continued unchecked, the arbitration course of itself might be rendered meaningless.
A Vital Authorized Sign
The ruling sends a robust sign that courts won’t permit arbitration clauses to turn into hole formalities whereas one get together workouts dominant management over disputed property.
Authorized observers say the choice reinforces judicial oversight in industrial disputes involving state-owned enterprises and underscores the Supreme Courtroom’s function as guardian of contractual sanctity.
Each SRIMEX and LPRC have excepted to parts of the Business Courtroom’s ruling, with LPRC asserting an enchantment to the Full Bench of the Supreme Courtroom for its March Time period A.D. 2026.
For now, the Chambers Justice’s intervention underscores a central precept: arbitration could resolve the dispute, however the courts will be sure that neither get together undermines the method earlier than it begins.
